Subscribe!

Tag: Generation Z

FM radio, a broadcast channel coming from an analogue era, has thus far shown resilience to the intense onslaught of digital media. Contrast that with the fate of analogue television and print which have succumbed spectacularly to the digital beast.

After all, traditional TV viewers have now become multichannel media users. As a result, cable and satellite TV are the big losers. In fact, results from a recent US study indicated that 61 percent of young adults rank online streaming services as the main way they watch TV (Christiane Cordero, CBS Minnesota).

At the same time, the print media has also been heavily disrupted by digital media. In fact, news has now gone primarily online. For that reason most major media companies have changed their business models to accommodate consumer preference for digital content (Forbes Communications Council).

For traditional television and print media the battle against digital media has largely been lost.

But what is it about FM radio? Surely, as radio made its first broadcast in 1906, the sequence of disruptive technology should have made it absolute a long time ago? But not so – here’s why…

The teens and tweens of today are a cohort of kids that doesn’t have a definitive name yet, however some have dubbed it Generation Z. Generation Z, the largest demographic cohort comprises 25% of the US population (Wikipedia, 2015). They will start working by 2020 and earning lots of money that need spending. Therefore Generation Z should be taken seriously by retailers who need to know who they are and what their needs, wants and preferences are.

Customers of different ages (or generations) behave differently when they go shopping in a store or online. This aspect of human behavior and demographic segmentation are sometimes forgotten by retailers. The market for retailers is in turmoil because of changes in consumer behavior, intense competition and digital disruptions. Subsequently most retailers have to reduce the price of their products to maintain their sale volumes.